Thomas Campione, pictured, says it's difficult to "comprehend the decentralised finance ecosystem growing “next door” without being exposed to it in its day-to-day activities" Nader Ghavami

Thomas Campione, pictured, says it's difficult to "comprehend the decentralised finance ecosystem growing “next door” without being exposed to it in its day-to-day activities" Nader Ghavami

The audit, tax and advisory firm announced the trailblazing measure on Monday, saying it would enter into effect from 1 October 2019.

Bitcoin was founded in 2009 when its source code was released as an open-source software. Two years later, businesses began accepting this cryptocurrency, which uses a transaction log or blockchain.

Its power to disrupt traditional payment models and shortcomings among the reasons that countries are calling for regulation of cryptocurrencies.

“Looking beyond obvious challenges, the Luxembourg firm strongly believes in the underlying technology as a medium to long-term standard in the economy and strives to position itself as an early adopter. The move to embrace crypto-payments is also a strong reflection of carefully listening to the growing demand from the market and PwC Luxembourg clients and offering them a secure payment alternative reflecting the evolution of our economy,” PwC Luxembourg said in a statement on 2 September.

The measure forms part of the firm’s strategy to offer PwC-branded blockchain products, including a crypto-audit tool, smart trace and smart credentials. Globally, the firm has 400 staff working on blockchain and crypto-topics.

“As part of the firm’s market assessment, what quickly became clear is that we could not continue to invest in the field, promote it, build solutions for clients and support their transformation while not also being exposed to it,” PwC Luxembourg blockchain and crypto-assets leader and director Thomas Campione said in the announcement.